1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the formation and conditioning of felts of fibrous insulating products, in particular those products based on mineral fibers.
2. Discussion of the Background
Conventionally, a blanket of fibrous products based on mineral fibers is produced, after various steps, at the outlet of a forming device in which the blanket has been compressed and heated in order to cause the curing of a binder encasing the fibers. The blanket obtained continuously in this way is conveyed on a transporting device and usually has a considerable width which may amount to several meters, for example 3.6 m. In order to use the blanket, it is necessary to cut defined lengths and widths smaller than the manufacturing width in order to obtain felts, the dimensions of which are, for example, 31 cm in width and 1.2 m in length.
Consequently, in a known way, the blanket at the outlet of the forming device is cut longitudinally and along its center line in order to produce two blankets of equal width which are driven, so as to branch off, by means of two separate conveyor belts. These blankets will be referred to hereinafter as half-width blankets.
A half-width fiber blanket, in turn, is sawn longitudinally into a plurality of strips, for example four, of equal width corresponding to the desired width of the felt to be provided. These four strips remain driven parallel to one another and undergo a crosscutting operation, to produce felts of a desired length, by means of guillotines located vertically in line with each traveling strip.
For the purpose of conditioning the felts, each of the four strips which consists of the formed felts is deflected and conveyed by a conveyor towards a compression and packaging machine. This machine comprises a reception device placed directly below the end of the conveyor so as to receive the insulating felts. After a predetermined number of felts have been stacked, the stack is transferred into a conditioning chamber in order to undergo compression in the direction of the stack. A film surrounds the stack. The film is subsequently glued or welded on itself, so as to encircle the stack, and compression can then be released.
Four conveying lines and four compression and packaging machines of the type described above are therefore necessary for the four conveyors conveying the four felt strips of the first half-width blanket, and as many machines are therefore used for the second half-width blanket.
The formation and conditioning of insulating felts consequently requires the use of a large number of transporting and conveying devices and of cutting, compression and packaging machines. In some manufacturing works, however, it is difficult to provide sufficient space to accommodate these conveying lines and these machines. Moreover, the labor remains high since two persons are usually employed in supervising and maintaining the cutting and conditioning machines. Finally, these machines which are expensive to purchase, increase the cost price of an installation as a whole.